AS SCHOOLS SLIDE INTO THE RED, IS IT TIME FOR ...
Countywide school districts?
Switch could save money, but cost some local control
By Lori Higgins Detroit Free Press Education Writer
With a record number of school districts sinking into a deficit, and two districts possibly on their way to being dissolved, state Superintendent Mike Flanagan is urging drastic action — such as converting Michigan’s nearly 550 districts, 56 intermediate districts and nearly 280 charter schools into countywide school districts.
If that can’t be done right away, he said, the state should give more power to intermediate school districts so operations such as transportation and food services can be consolidated.
Flanagan predicted that countywide districts or his hybrid option could save millions — money he said could be used to teach students. But little, if any, research supports his position, a fact that’s drawing concern from educators and others.
Don Wotruba, deputy director of the Michigan Association of School Boards, said his organization is open to discussing the idea. But, he said, a one-size-fits-all mandate isn’t the way to go. “It’s just something where you really need to look at it on a county-by-county basis,” Wotruba said.
Some states such as Florida, Maryland and Virginia have had countywide school sys- tems for years, while others have one or more examples of countywide districts. The change would be a controversial move in Michigan, given uncertainty among educators over whether it would save money and about the ripple effect it could have on jobs and local control. Many school leaders are already expressing concern.
Flanagan plans to release a document this week that he hopes will begin a discussion about either option. He argued that aggressive action is needed, citing examples such as the Buena Vista School District near Saginaw, which shut down for two weeks in May because it couldn’t pay teachers.
“Before I can embrace it or be opposed, I really need to see the data to see if it does indeed save significant resources and if it will indeed help improve instruction,” said Chris Wigent, superintendent for the Wayne Regional Educational Service Agency, the intermediate school district (ISD) for Wayne County.
Flanagan, who broached the idea of countywide districts at a legislative hearing last month, said he believes enrollment declines and financial ups and downs would be better absorbed with fewer districts, consolidating many major functions at the county level.
“I think it’s the answer,” Flanagan said. “It would stabilize things.”
Possible options
What Flanagan is suggesting could take Michigan in one of two directions:
› The state could eliminate its local school districts and organize schools by county — there are 83 counties in the state — or by intermediate school district. So a county such as Oakland, with 28 individual school districts and 28 individual superintendents, would become one district with one superintendent and 180,274 students.
› A hybrid option would place more power with the state’s intermediate school districts by transferring all non-instructional services — such as transportation, business and food service — to the ISDs. Local school districts would focus solely on instruction. The ISDs, for instance, would handle transportation for the entire county, rather than each district having a transportation department. Eventually, some instructional services would be handled at the county level, too, Flanagan said.
Marcus Napthen, an English teacher at Belleville High School, said he doesn’t think countywide districts are the way to go, but he’s open to the idea of consolidating certain services — such as transportation — at the county level.
But instead of a state mandate, he said, counties should be allowed to determine how they can best share services so districts can maintain local control.
“The school is the center of the community,” Napthen said.
A full switch to a county-wide model would require legislative approval, and Flanagan said he expects sizable opposition. The hybrid option, he said, is the one to embrace immediately — though it, too, would require a change in state law.
“We’ve got to propose things we think can get done,” he said. “The hybrid plan can get done, should get done.”
A spokeswoman for Gov. Rick Snyder didn’t say whether he supports the idea of countywide districts or the hybrid option. But she referred to Snyder’s announcement last week that he is creating a work group to help identify early warning signs that lead to serious financial problems for districts.
On Tuesday, Snyder signed two laws that allow Flanagan and state Treasurer Andy Dillon to dissolve small, financially insolvent school districts. The laws could have an immediate impact on the Buena Vista and Inkster school districts.
Save on bureaucracy
Flanagan said he believes there’s “tons of money” that can be saved by moving most district functions to the ISDs.
“I bet there’s a couple hundred million, minimally, in that, depending on how aggressive we are,” he said. “And all that goes back into the classroom.”
Vickie Markavitch, superintendent for Oakland Schools, Oakland County’s ISD, said Michigan should conduct a study — one she said has been done in more than 40 other states — that addresses what an adequate education should cost.
“Certainly, it might be an idea that needs to be further researched,” she said of the hybrid option.
Florida, with 67 school districts and 2.7 million students, has had countywide school districts for decades. The state has several of the largest school systems in the nation.
Joie Cadle, a member of the board of education in Orange County, Fla., said countywide districts provide economies of scale not possible with hundreds of local school systems. The Orange County district, which enrolls 175,807 students, operates 181 schools.
“We only have to have one chief financial officer,” Cadle said. “We only have to have one chief operating officer. We have one superintendent.”
Some in Michigan aren’t so sure bigger is always better.
“I would be concerned about being able to meet the needs of all of the students in an effective way,” said Judy Pritchett, chief academic officer for the Macomb Intermediate School District.
Cadle, who was previously president of the Florida School Boards Association, said she’s often asked how a district with so many students can manage effectively.
It does so, she said, by organizing the district in a way to cut down on bureaucracy. The Orange County district is divided into five zones — each with 35,000 students, an area superintendent and several executive area directors, which is the equivalent of assistant superintendents.
Concerns at local level
One of the biggest concerns about moving away from the current system of school districts in Michigan is the loss of local control.
“I’m a supporter of local control,” Wigent said. “I’m not sure how to set up a county-wide system but still maintain that type of option to make local decisions.”
For years, Michigan’s lawmakers and leaders have urged more school district to consolidate altogether or at least consolidate some services to reduce costs.
A lot of work has gone into consolidating services — fueled by ISD efforts to bring districts together to share services. The work has saved tens of millions of dollars annually in each of the ISDs in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties, reports show.
But few districts have responded to calls for complete consolidation, despite the fact that Michigan has 91 districts with fewer than 500 students.
The most recent consolidation became official July 1 when the Willow Run and Ypsilanti school districts, both operating with deficits, merged.
For more than a decade, John Yinger, professor of economics and public administration, has authored or co-authored research on school consolidation in which two or more districts combine. Results have been mixed, he said.
For instance, combining two 10,000-student districts won’t save money, Yinger said. But combining two 1,000-student districts will. For one, when two smaller districts combine, there typically isn’t a need to add staff. But that’s not always the case with larger districts.
In their study of rural school districts in New York, the researchers found no economies of scale with transportation, for instance. That’s generally because when transportation is consolidated, the average distance to schools rises.
A 2007 study by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy — a conservative think tank based in Midland — estimated that the potential savings from consolidating tiny districts would be 8.5%, but only in cases where small districts banded together to form a district that matched what the study found to be the optimal size: 2,900 students. The think tank said Michigan would see greater savings by breaking up large districts.
Bloomfield Township resident John Roach called Flanagan’s hybrid idea a bit of a stretch, but said it’s worth discussing.
He expressed concern over the full countywide model, saying he knows of no district as big as Oakland’s county-wide district would be that is both a success in educating students and efficient in the way it spends money.
“That is not to say that we should continue to maintain 28 districts in Oakland County,” Roach said. “Some degree of consolidation looks wise.”
Contact Lori Higgins: 313-222-6651or lhiggins@freepress.com
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